


A Sun and a Man

by AngelofPerdition



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, enjolras doesn't die in this, i guess that's something, so like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-25
Updated: 2013-03-25
Packaged: 2017-12-06 10:06:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/734451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngelofPerdition/pseuds/AngelofPerdition
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’d come back and if he hadn’t, Enjolras wouldn’t be sitting here for two reasons, the main being that Enjolras himself would’ve been dead. The other…</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Sun and a Man

Enjolras had never been the one to try and drink himself into oblivion. No, it had always been Grantaire who’d drowned his sorrows with a bottle of wine or absinthe or any other kind of alcoholic beverage.   
Which was maybe why it was so appropriate for Enjolras to do the same now, given the circumstances.

_(It was going well, great even. The barricade was standing and so were the revolutionaries. Enjolras watched over his friends proudly from where he was standing on top of the barricade, firing shots at the National Guard._   
_Then Marius shouted “Eponine!” and Enjolras was distracted, for just a second. Just a second too long. He closed his eyes._

_And then he was down. He hadn’t been shot. He was okay._

_He opened his eyes again to see Grantaire’s blazing with fury. “What were you thinking?” he was shouting. “You could’ve been dead, you idiot!”_

_Grantaire. He’d come back.)_

He’d come back.

He’d come back and if he hadn’t, Enjolras wouldn’t be sitting here for two reasons, the main being that Enjolras himself would’ve been dead. The other...

He took another drink from the bottle of absinthe. Would it really help numb everything?

_(Grantaire wasn’t drunk. Not even a little. For the first time since Enjolras had known him, the cynic was completely sober. It was a sight to behold._

_He was next to Enjolras, fighting and shouting like the rest of them, like he belonged there. And he did. He always had, he just hadn’t believed it himself._

_When the sun set, the battle calmed down, both parties wanting to take care of their wounded, mourn their dead._   
_Enjolras turned to Grantaire. “Why did you come back? What made you suddenly believe in the cause?”_   
_But Grantaire’s eyes grew wide and he pulled on Enjolras’s arm. “Watch out!”_

_Nobody had seen the one remaining man from the National Guard. Nobody, except Grantaire.)_

Nobody had seen him, except Grantaire. If someone else had seen him, he wouldn’t be sitting here. Or maybe he would, but not with only alcohol for company.  
Though it had to be said, alcohol was great company for a grieving man.

_(So many men had died already that day. So many men and a few women and children. Yet none of them seemed to matter anymore._   
_Not when Grantaire was standing where Enjolras himself had been standing not seconds ago, face pale and shirt red with blood._

_Grantaire collapsed and Enjolras was there to catch him, lower him gently to the ground._   
_Enjolras heard himself shout for Joly, or Combeferre, but both were busy tending to the other wounded._

_“Apollo.”_   
_The idiot was trying to speak. Didn’t he understand he had to save his breath, save his strength?_

_“Shh,” Enjolras said. “Don’t speak. You will be fine.”_

_But the dark-haired cynic clutched at his shirt, trying to get his attention. Enjolras caught his hand and held it. “What is it?”_

_“I don’t believe in the cause,” Grantaire said, and then he coughed, blood dripping from his mouth. Then, more urgently. “I’ve never believed in the_ cause _, Apollo. But what is a man without the sun?”)_

_Enjolras banged his head on the table and pulled on his hair in frustration. He hadn’t understood it, then._

He should’ve understood it. He should’ve told him... what, exactly?

That Grantaire was worth more than he knew.  
That he really was a valuable friend.  
That Enjolras didn’t just tolerate him.

That a sun was nothing without a man to see him shine.

**Author's Note:**

> just a bit very much shorter than i intended idk


End file.
